Changes to child tax credits and the 'Universal Credit' benefit system will mean that people making a new claim from 6 April will have the number of children they can claim for capped at two. One exception to this is if the third child was born as a result of what the government calls "non-consensual conception."

19 million people in the UK - nearly 30% of the population - live below the 'minimum income standard' (MIS) and "are just about managing at best," according to a recent report by the poverty think-tank Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

News that violence against shop workers has gone up by 28% in a year will come as no surprise to those who've worked in the industry. The British Retail Consortium reports that half of retail workers have been verbally abused, and over 8% assaulted.

Concentrix, a private US firm used by HM Revenue and Customs to cut tax credit payments, has been receiving suicidal calls from claimants - as a result of losing their payments thrusting them deeper into poverty.

It was with overwhelming shock that I learnt my family stands to lose around £140 a month. Tory cuts to tax credits will hit us hard when implemented in 2016. Some families stand to lose up to £1,700 a year.

THE FIASCO of the tax credit system has hit the headlines again. Stark figures show that millions of low-paid workers are being driven into debt by a system set up to overcome poverty. A London Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) worker writes.